An Old Holotape
by Torino1992
Summary: Nate reflects on his time in the Commonwealth and the life he should have had. One-shot (not anymore), Complete (sort of).
1. Chapter 1: Thawed

Chapter 1: Thawed

Nate felt strange as consciousness slowly began to trickle back into him. He felt extremely cold as if he was back near the Artic circle again, which was odd considering that the weather was expected to be extremely warm for the rest of October. His normally comfy mattress was stiff and seemed to be contorting his back at an odd angle. Slowly though he began to realize what was happening, he was cold because he had been frozen, his bed was in fact a cryo tube that he and is family had been tricked into upon entering Vault 111.

Slowly he opened his eyes peering out the slightly defrosted window to get an idea of what had become of his wife and son just across from him. In the other pod he could just make out movement through the two panes of still defrosting glass between them. Two figures came into his limited view the female figure clad in a white bio-suit of some unknown design pointed to his wife's pod.  
"This is the one." Her companion a rather squat balding man with what appeared to be rat wire on one shoulder moved to the other side of his wife's pod. Nate noticed a rather oversized revolver in the man's had an immediately began pounding on the glass shouting a warning to his wife.

"Open it." The man ordered. Nora's pod opened and she looked around confused at the two strange individuals before her.

"Wha.., Wher… What's going on?" She struggled to breath forcing herself to take deep breaths with every word she spoke.

"Don't worry, just give us the boy." The mercenary ordered while his assistant in the hazmat suit attempted to take Shaun away from her. Nate pounded on the glass even harder as his wife began to panic.

"No, I've got him leave us alone." The man pointed a massive revolver at her clearly intending it as a threat.

"Let the boy go. I won't ask you again." Nora was nearly hysterical now and regaining her strength quickly from their unexpected nap. She nearly had Shaun free of the assistants grasp in only another few seconds she would get free and give the mercenary a run for his money.

"Give him back you bastards, I'm not letting you take my son."

Nate watched in slow motion as the gunman pulled the trigger and his wife's head exploded across the insider of her cryo-pod.

"NORA!" Nate woke up screaming in his bed in Sanctuary Hills, his heart beating a thousand times per minute threatening to burst from his chest soaked in a freezing sweat. His cry echoed throughout the abandoned and collapsing house startling several crows that had roosted for the night.

Codsworth came flying into the room buzz saw and flamer at the ready. Upon seeing Nate as the only occupant in the room he said "Mr. Nate? Is everything alright sir?"

Nate was too busy gasping for breath and attempting to calm his racing heart to reply initially. Eventually he managed to slow his heart and steady his breathing enough to reply. "No. Nothing is alright Codsworth and unless you can raise the dead it never will be." Codsworth seemed to be utterly flummoxed by this comment and hovered there attempting to process what Nate said for several seconds. Nate eventually broke the silence he had created and said much more gently "I'm sorry Codsworth. I'll be fine I promise, it's just going to take some time."

This Codsworth was able to respond to "Sir Nate I may just be a humble Mr. Handy but if there is anything I can do to help please don't hesitate to ask."

Nate gave the robot butler a weak smile "Thank you Codsworth. I'm going to try and get some more sleep, I'll see you in the morning."

"Proud to server, sir." Codworth replied and left to continue his patrol of Sanctuary.

Nate laid back down and attempted to sleep but whenever he closed his eyes all he could see was his wife's head exploding as that bastard gunned her down. He finally settled on staring at the ceiling and counting all the new cracks that had formed since his departure just a few days ago, or centuries depending on your perspective. Eventually though the sky began to lighten up as the first rays of sunlight broke the horizon. He sighed and decided if he couldn't sleep, he might as well do something productive with his time. He quickly donned his blue jumpsuit and pulled on some socks and boots that he'd managed to scrounge up from the remains of his dresser and closet.

Nate headed outside and was greeted by the rather pleasant aroma of stew cooking in the only other occupied house in Sanctuary Hills. Just two days prior he'd headed into Concord to find information and ideally a guide that could help him traverse the changed Commonwealth. Instead he'd found a group of Raider had trapped a small group of people inside the old museum there. After a few rounds of shotgun, or laser rifle, diplomacy he managed to secure the museum and link-up with the few remaining survivors. Preston Garvey the man in charge of this small group had requested his assistance in escorting these people to a place they called "Sanctuary". Turns out their sanctuary was his old neighborhood that he had just left from so he gave them the nickel tour before they all crashed for the night.

Yesterday Nate had every intention of setting out after picking Garvey's brain for every bit of information about this hellscape that he found himself in. Unfortunately, between the questions, building a water filtration system, planting crops, and preparing better beds the entire day had been spent. The information he gathered was not very comforting, turns out that raiders were the least of the threats that could be found across the Commonwealth. Ghouls, Robots, You Guai, Deathclaws, and even synthetic humans that could pass as the real deal stalked the wasteland. Thankfully they also pointed out a few settlements on his Pip-Boy Map that could be of potential use to him. Diamond City even had it's own detective that specialized in missing person cases that Nate couldn't wait to get to.

The people that Nate had rescued seemed to be decent enough folk but Nate still wasn't sure what to make of them. Preston was a frontline soldier thru and thru but he seemed completely at a loss for what to do without someone giving him orders. Sturgis was a gearhead that couldn't go two seconds without taking something apart and (hopefully) putting it back together again. The Longs, Jun & Marcy, were in grief over their son's death and while Nate could relate to that he didn't really see anyway he could help them with that, he never had been very good with grieving families. That just left Mama Murphy the supposed psychic of the group, honestly Nate just figured she was a druggy that had found a unique way to score a fix but even he had to admit she seemed to know way more than she should.

Briefly he considered joining them for a quick meal before he headed out but decided against it, the D-rations he'd stashed in his house were still good and much easier to eat on the road than any meal they would offer. As he made his way towards the bridge out of Sanctuary Preston's voice pierced the early morning silence. "Nate, can you hold up a second?"

Nate stopped just in front of the bridge and turned to face the last minuteman. "I suppose so, but I'd like to get going sooner rather than later."

Preston caught up with him and nodded "I understand we made you some food for the road as thanks for all your help yesterday." Preston handed him a sack that looked to be full of some kind of jerky or venison. "And I hate to ask but I was wondering if you'd be willing to take care of something else for us?"

Nate sighed. "Look Preston I know I saved you guys in Concord but I don't think I'm half the guy you think I am. I honestly only saved you because you were the only people NOT shooting me in Concord and I need some information."

"That may be the case but you didn't have to escort us back here or help us setup or even stop and listen to me today. Look we can argue about how great or not great you are later. I just wanted to know if you'd be willing to help some more people out. The trader that came in this morning brought word of two settlements that need some help, trouble is I'm just one person and they both need help soon if they can get it. I'll even let you pick which one to help."

Nate nodded. "Show me the settlements and tell me what their problems are. I can't guarantee I'll help but I can go talk to them at least."  
Preston smiled as Nate pulled out his Pip-Boy map. "Tabernathy Farm is directly West from here it's more out of the way but supposedly they're only being bothered by a small raider gang. Oberland station is actually on your way if you're going to Diamond City however they say that it's a super mutant group that's bothering them."

Nate winced and nervously ran his hand thru his shorn hair. Super Mutants, according to Preston, were genetically modified humans, resistant to light arms fire, and strong as hell fighting them with just a pistol and a laser musket would be quite a challenge. "I'll head for Oberland Station."  
Preston shuffled nervously. "You sure? Super Mutants are no joke, especially if you've never fought them before."

"I'm sure."  
"Okay then take these frag grenades then, I know we split them after Concord but you'll need all the help you can get against those things."

The two men headed out of Sanctuary past the Red Rocket station to the fork in the road where they would head their separate ways. Waiting for them was a dog, the dog glanced at the men and then at the sun slowly rising into the sky as if to say "you're late" Nate kneeled down to scratch the dog behind the ears "I know we're late Dogmeat, it's all Preston's fault."

An indignant "Hey!" and a soft bark later Preston and Nate said their goodbyes. As they headed off Dogmeat followed Preston who seemed a little shocked. "Are you sure boy? Nate's the one going against Super Mutants." Dogmeat merely barked and him and continued up the western road.

Nate shrugged at Preston "Maybe he knows something we don't. See ya later Preston, stay safe." They finally split up with the man in Brown heading west and the Man in Blue heading South.

The road out of Concord was rather quiet, a stark contrast to just a few days ago when the raiders had tried to kill them all. Unfortunately for Nate the quiet trip meant that his mind was free to wander, even before the events in Vault 111 this never was a good thing to have happen. Memories of the Resource Wars, of countless battles, the stench of bile and gore, the screams of the innocent and combatants alike all began to plague him during his walk.

Luckily the sound of raided voices managed to yank him out of those memories before he got to deep into them. Checking his Pip-Boy he saw that it'd been almost an hour had passed and that he was near the old Drumlin Diner. Apparently, some drug, or chem, dealer was trying to collect on some debts that the current Diner's residents had incurred. A little persuasion here, a few threats there and the dealer was paid off much more cheaply than what he'd been demanding with the stipulation that he not sell to the kid again.

Nate doubted this would be a permanent solution but at least this way he didn't have to waste time burying some corpses in a shallow grave. Heading further south, and steering clear of the pre-war disposal yard, his Pip-Boy began to beep at him. Closer investigation revealed that it had picked up a new radio signal for him to listen to labeled Military Frequency AF95. Nate highly doubted it was the military that he was familiar with from the Resource Wars but decided to have a listen anyways on the off chance it had some useful information.

"our position at Cambridge Police Station. Automated message repeats… This is Scribe Haylen of Reconnaissance Squad Gladius to any unit in transmission range. Authorization Arx. Ferrum. Nine. Five. Our unit has sustained casualties and we're running low on supplies. We're requesting support or evac from our position at Cambridge Police Station. Automated message repeats…"

Nate sighed and said aloud "Great Igor seems like we've got more helpless villagers to go save." After a second, he realized that he said that out loud and became slightly concerned about his mental health. He shrugged and continued on it only seemed natural to go a little insane in this new world he found himself in. He shouldered his laser musket and decided to head towards Cambridge, time to see what the "military" of the Commonwealth really looked like.

AN: So this is the real chapter 1 for my story An Old Holotape, fair warning the other chapter already posted will be the ending for this story so don't read it if you don't want spoilers.


	2. Chapter 2: Cambridge

Chapter 2: Cambridge

Even if Nate wasn't familiar with the area, he would have easily located the Cambridge Police Station. The sounds of laser rifle fire echoed across the Commonwealth just as he passed the Disposal Yard. Deciding that he wasn't too far Nate decided he'd hoof it.

This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, despite being in near perfect physical shape two hundred years ago the cryo storage had not been kind to his body. Just before he got to Cambridge he was forced to stop and catch his breath. The Med-X in his pack was tempting however he was more likely to permanently injure himself by doing something stupid if he took it. After catching out his breath and stretching out his aching joints Nate set out for the short walk that remained to reach the Police Station.

Carefully he made his way around the side of the station and poked his head around the side of the building. The courtyard in front of the station had been hastily fortified with composite walls and sand bags. Several dozen creatures, ghouls if Preston's description was to be believed, were rushing through the other entrances to the courtyard towards a three-man team that stood before the door to the station. Nate's attention was immediately drawn to the man in black T-51 Power Armor as he towered over the other two individuals, offering protection as one received treatment for a leg wound from the other.

Without hesitation Nate stepped into the courtyard, pulled a grenade from his belt he announced his presence with a cry of "Friendly from the North-West!". The frag left his hand and arced it's way to landing just outside the fortifications near a particularly dense grouping of feral ghouls before detonating. Unslinging his pipe rifle and tossing his kit bag at the stairs of the station Nate took aim at the group of ferals. Although aiming at a group of enemies that was literally the size of a large truck, he still put the sight to his eye and began picking his targets. Using precise bursts of rifle fire Nate began killing the ghouls closest to the small group of humans. Eventually their combined firepower began driving the living portion of the horde further back from their position.

Sadly, Nate lacked the ammunition for sustained engagement with his pipe rifle, once he was completely out, he tossed it aside and threw another grenade into the wriggling mass of feral ghouls. Pulling his laser musket, he continued killing the ghouls but at a pace that was noticeably slower than before, as such the ghouls began to make up the ground that they had lost. Thankfully there were only a few left at this point, unfortunately they were now on top of Nate and the guy in power armor. For his ally this was easily dealt with as he swatted the ghoul away like it was an insect, Nate wasn't as fortunate. Without the assistance of power armor the ghoul that jumped him was much harder to deal with. Dodging the gnashing teeth and grasping claws Nate bashed the ghoul over the head, using his laser musket like a baseball bat and the courtyard fell silent.

The power armor clad figure removed his helmet revealing a worn and battle-scarred face with closely shorn black hair. "Thank you for the assist civilian, I am Paladin Danse leader of this recon team. Our impromptu medic over there is Scribe Haylen and she's treating Knight Rhys for what appear to be a rather nasty leg wound. Now who the hell are you exactly?"

Deciding that honesty was the best policy, especially when dealing with walking tanks Nate replied. "I'm Nate, I was on my way to help a settlement with some Super Mutants when I picked up your distress call. I was hoping if you really are the military that you'd be willing to help me out with them."

"A noble enough cause, under normal circumstances I'd be more than willing to help take out a nest of undesirables but… well…" Danse trailed off into thought for a moment. "Let's move the wounded inside and we can talk about it."

Once inside the police station the Scribe and Knight moved further back into a makeshift bedroom area. Paladin Danse however stopped in the main room and motioned for Nate to join him "I'm going to be honest with you since I appreciate your candor earlier. In all honesty we're in a bad way, over half of our team is dead, we've been out of contact with our command since arriving here, and now a third of my surviving team is too wounded to move very far. I honestly that a fight with anyone is a bad idea, let alone a fight with Super Mutants."

As Danse paused in his assessment Nate merely nodded, to be honest if the group had been nearly wiped out by ghouls he highly doubted they'd be any match for a group of Super Mutants. His musing was interrupted by Danse continuing his report, "I know I have no right to ask for your assistance but if you'd be willing to help us secure a long-range transmitter from Arcjet Systems, I'd be willing to travel with you. Provided these Super Mutants aren't too far away so that we could eliminate them and I can return to my team before more trouble found my team. What do you say, soldier?"

Nate carefully considered his options, on the one hand Arcjet would mean another detour from his target, but if it could net him the assistance of this walking tank it could drastically speed up his journey. He guessed that only one thing would really matter in this situation, "What would you consider too far? I'm not exactly sure where these Super Mutants are located right now."

"I need to get back here everyday before sunset. The ferals are decidedly more active at night and leaving the station unguarded is just asking for them to swarm it. So, do we have a deal?"

Nate nodded and offered his hand for a shake to seal the deal. Rather than shaking it Paladin Danse clasped his right fist over his heart and said "Ad Victorium. Take whatever ammo you need from around the station. Although I'd ask that you leave our Micro-Fusion Cores alone as they're our primary ammunition. In fact if you have in spare I'd happily trade what caps we've managed to scrounge up in exchange for them."

Nate nodded and began exploring further back into the station to see what he could find. While he did manage to locate enough .38 caliber rounds to restock his pipe rifle most of what he found was rather useless 10mm rounds for his pistol which would work in a pinch but hardly had the stopping power he would like. As he moved back to the main room he began to hear the slight pitter-patter of rain coming from the windows. By the time he had made his way to the front window where Paladin Danse was waiting the gentle drone was threatening to turn into an outright roar.  
Paladin Danse turned from the window and addressed Nate. "I was afraid of this, looks like we'll have to head out in the morning. Power Armor is extremely time consuming maintain if it gets to wet and right now I can't really afford the downtime or loss of efficiency."

Nate felt his eyes glaze over as he fell into his memories. Against his will his nostrils filled with the stench of oil, burning permafrost, bile, and gore. He felt the twinge on his back as a technician grinded a broken bolt from the back of his power armor. Thankfully he could still hear Danse's voice interrupting his memory. It took significantly more effort than it had with Nora's voice but he was able to pull himself from the memory before the mortar's hit.

"-bably best if you get some sleep."

"NO!" Nate accidently shouted out loud. Danse, Haylen, and Rhys all gave him a quizzical look at his outburst. "No" he said a little more controlled this time "I'll take first watch; it doesn't look like your squad has had much sleep the past few days. We can rotate out in a couple hours but for now I'm fine."

Danse looked as if he really doubted this was the case but decided to let it go for now. "Fair enough wake one of us in three hours, we'll take it from there."

Nate nodded and sat at one of the few tables that remained in one piece to service and clean his weapons while the others moved into the next room. Hours passed as he slowly tinkered and cleaned his weapons it only took an hour for him to bring his weapons back to peak performance yet he still he kept working. If he kept his mind occupied maybe it would leave him alone instead of plaguing him with ancient history, maybe it would stop haunting him with his wife's death or Anchorage.

"I thought Paladin Danse told you to wake one of us up after a couple of hours?" Nate jumped as Scribe Haylen joined him at the table. Glancing at his Pip-Boy he saw that it was almost midnight, a good four hours after he'd started his watch.

"I'm surprised any of you are awake, you and the rest of your squad looked ready to pass out just walking to your bedrolls." Nate replied completely sidestepping the Scribe's question.

"Fairly certain the reasons Danse doesn't usually sleep and the reason you can't get to sleep are very similar." Nate merely grunted in agreement as Haylen continued talking. "Now he's managing to rest just fine and you need to do the same. I realize you're a civilian and under no obligation to listen to any of us that's why I brought this."

In her hand was a syringe and before he could react, she grabbed his arm and jabbed his arm with it, injecting the cocktail of drugs into his bloodstream. Nate's eyes immediately began to feel heavy, his fatigue increased tenfold, and his head dropped to the table.

"Don't worry this is just a mild sedative mixed with a small dose of Day Tripper. Standard early treatment for PTSD victims in the Brotherhood, when administered by a trained medic. You should be out for at least seven hours; you and the Paladin can head out when you wake up."

Despite his best efforts the drugs quickly spread across his body and he passed out.

Nate woke up to a searing headache the likes of which he hadn't felt since his last shore leave before he left the army. Despite his throbbing head he didn't feel too bad, for the first time since being put on ice he had gotten a full night's sleep and not been haunted by his nightmares. The table his head rested on felt as comfortable as the bed he and his wife had shared just a week ago, or two centuries ago depending on your perspective.

Opening his eyes, he saw a bottle of purified water that had been left for him. After downing its contents in a single go his head felt noticeably better, at least until he heard the thunderous crash of a man in Power Armor coming into the room.

"Glad to see you awake soldier. It's a little later than we planned so let's move out." Danse said in a normal voice but to Nate it felt like he was yelling like a drill sergeant.

Grabbing his Pipe Rifle and 10mm pistol he ensured they were loaded with a round in the chamber before securing them for travel. He secured his laser musket to the side of his kit bag and checked that his spare ammunition was within easy reach on his leather bandolier. Moving into the main room he was able to catch the tail end of an argument between Paladin Danse and Knight Rhys.

"You have your orders Knight. You and Scribe Haylen are to secure yourselves in the station and barricade the door, myself and the civilian will be back before nightfall." Despite the tone of Paladin Danse suggesting that this was the end of the conversations Knight Rhys was still unsatisfied.

"If Danse dies you better not show your face around here again wastelander." Rhys threatened Nate.

"Rhys that's enough!" Danse shouted "Let's move out." He directed toward Nate.

Nate and Paladin Danse left the police station and began heading west out of Cambridge on the road towards ArcJet Systems.


	3. Chapter 3: Arject

Chapter 3: Arject

The trip from Cambridge to Arcjet was rather quiet and uneventful, well as quiet and uneventful as life in this post apocalypse Commonwealth could possibly be. A few wild dogs and a handful of raiders were turned into corpses before they managed to make it to the facility. Neither of the soldiers seemed particularly keen on talking at the moment, more than content to focus on the mission at hand. Once they arrived at Arcjet the paladin finally decided to break the silence that they had enjoyed on the trip.

"Once we're inside resistance should be rather light, mostly turrets and a handful of security robots. That said don't get cocky, stay in cover or use me as cover, pick your shots and we'll be done before lunch. Any questions?"

"Not really seems like a normal smash and grab. I did dozens of these back during the war."

"The war? You don't…" Paladin Danse was interrupted by the sounds of energy weapons discharging from inside the facility. Both men readied their rifles at the door, and when nothing came out, they headed in with the Paladin out front.

Once inside they were greeted by the acrid smell of burning plastics and smoldering metal alloys. Yet no signs of combat in their immediate vicinity. It wasn't until they moved out of the entrance hall and into a security station that they found the source of the acrid smells. At least a dozen robots and turret remains littered the floor, they all seemed to suffer damage from laser or plasma rifle fire.

"Damn it! What's the Institute doing here?" Paladin Danse asked.

"What's the Institute and how do you know it's them?"

"I don't know what rock you used to live under but you might want to move back there. The Institute are the boogeymen of the Commonwealth, they've perverted technology for their own selfish gains and created an army of synthetic creatures. Worse still is their latest creations appear completely human and they use them to replace people for purposes that only they know."

"Creepy." Nate replied a little sarcastically. "I assume they still die or stop working if you shoot them enough times."

"True enough. Look I know you didn't sign up to fight synths, if you want to pull out, I'd understand." Nate's only response was to ready his rifle and motion for the Paladin to lead the way. "Much appreciated. Ad Victorium"

Despite some recently 'deceased' robots they encountered nothing of interest as they searched the offices in their immediate vicinity. Most likely the transmitter they were looking for was further in, somewhere in the research labs or a storage facility below ground. Their path was blocked by a sealed door without a visible mechanism to open it. Despite being this far in the facility they still had yet to come across any synths.

"Let's see if we can't find a way to open these doors, I have some explosives but I'd rather save them for later." Danse said.

A quick peak at the computer on the center desk revealed it was way beyond Nate's mediocre hacking abilities. However, the terminal that had been stashed in a corner desk was completely unsecured, some people just had no sense of security. It even contained an automatically updated password for the main computer, a few keystrokes later and he was ready to open the lab door. As the door slid open it revealed a tall humanoid shaped creature with an expressionless plastic face, steel skeletal structure, and a white jumpsuit covering its clearly artificial body. It moved with an almost natural, if stiff, motion.

"Intruders detected!" Its synthesized voice cried filling the adjoining rooms with its cry.

Nate was completely caught off guard by the strange semi-humanoid creature before him. At least until it readied a pistol in his direction, his hesitation cost him as he took a glancing energy blast to his left shoulder before he managed to get fully behind cover. The smell of burning jumpsuit and flesh filled his nostrils, he'd check later to see if it needed any treatment right now he had larger concerns. Ignoring the pain he readied his pipe rifle across the top of the desk, quickly he aimed and fired three rounds into the chest of the synth. It merely caused the creature to stagger so Nate put another three rounds into its head before it could recover. This time the synth fell to the ground and did not get up so Paladin Danse charged into the next room and Nate followed using his considerable bulk as cover.

They immediately came under fire from three more synths. Nate and Danse focused fire as one by one the synths fell to the ground from their combined weapons fire. In quick order all the synths were down, apparently fights would be rather quick affair when one side refused to use any of the available cover and the other had a walking tank. Continuing their search revealed no transmitter but plenty of other useful odds and ends that Nate stashed away inside his bag.

Eventually the two made it into a room with a rather large rocket engine hanging in the middle of it. A flimsy rusty stairway was all that kept them from dropping down onto the burned-out ground below. Further up the stairs had already given way to the centuries of rust that threatened to bring the rest of it toppling down, preventing any easy access to the upper level.

"There's an elevator over here that has to go somewhere. If we can get the power online maybe it's still working." Nate said.

"If there's any source of back-up power it will be in that maintenance tunnel down there." Danse replied pointing it out to Nate. "Can you check it out. I want a closer look at this engine."

The tunnel definitely had all the ear-marks of a maintenance shaft; it was dark, dingy, and was a serious headroom hazard and that was before two hundred years of neglect and refuse build-up had gotten in the way. After pilfering a couple of toolboxes Nate found a circuit breaker and a fusion generator with an ejected core. A quick check of the core revealed that it was mostly charged and only ejected because it fell below minimum usage, the circuit box was in much worse shape with the main fuse completely blown and no spares in sight. A bit of scrap metal later and the fuse was bypassed so he injected the fusion core into the generator.

Immediately the bit of scrap metal in the breaker box flung sparks out but it didn't break, more importantly all the lights flickered on and Nate heard the sound of automated doors slamming shut. As he hurried back along the maintenance tunnels, he noticed an observation window that he had somehow overlooked on the way into the reactor room. On the other side stood Paladin Danse. "Nice work on the power but I can't open the doors. Is there a switch on your side?"

Before Nate could reply several large thuds could be heard coming from behind the Paladin each accompanied by a cloud of ashen dust being kicked up by the impacts. From the dust clouds rose synths with raised pistols targeting the Paladin as yet more synths rained from the ceiling preparing to eliminate the cornered soldier. Nate ran to assist him only to find that the automated doors refused to open for him. An automated message filled the room "Warning! Engine test lockout. Unable to allow access until test fire is complete."

Back at the window Nate saw a big red button labeled 'Engine Ignition' which would likely do wonders to clear the testing chamber so Nate didn't hesitate to push the button. Only after did he consider that Paladin Danse was still in the test chamber, hopefully he wasn't wearing a suit of T-51a Power Armor that particular model had a bad habit of shorting out the thermal protection systems at the most inopportune moments. A roar filled the test chamber as the engine fired for the first time in two hundred years, despite the years of neglect it was an almost perfect firing with the bell housing of the engine creating an amazing set of shock crystals. Synthetics were flung against the wall and melted or shattered upon impact, meanwhile Paladin Danse was forced into a kneeling position while the waves of heat and force rolled over him.

As the engine finally quieted the doors to the test chamber swung open with an audible click, Nate didn't hesitate running into the room to check on the Danse. He was forced to put a few rounds into a still crawling synth but despite that he made his way to Paladin Danse unimpeded. Grabbing a Stim-Pack from his bandolier he injected it into one of the designated ports on the front of the Power Armor. "Up and at'em Paladin, we're almost done here."

Danse's breath was short and ragged but he was still able to speak "Did you know that my power armor would protect me or did you just not care?"

"Do you want the truth? Or one of those little white lies that will make you feel better and help you sleep at night?" Nate responded with sarcasm dripping from his questions.

Danse's laugh quickly turned to a cough as he still struggled to even out his breathing. "Shut up. Let's get up to that control room, the transmitter has to be in there."

"And at least a squad or town of synths no doubt." Nate said. Danse nodded and the two men loaded fresh clips into their weapons. Nate checked his side arm and the Institute rifle that he'd pick up from one of the fallen synths they'd killed.

Both of them entered the elevator and trained their rifles on the automatic doors, as the elevator slowed to a stop the doors began to slowly open to reveal…. nothing. Well technically not nothing it was another metal catwalk that lead up to a control room of sorts. Through the observation window Nate could just make out movement of what was most likely synths walking around the room. Nate signaled for Danse to wait at the elevator and snuck up to the open door of the control room.

Peeking over the top of the desk that had been conveniently placed to cover his entrance into the room Nate could just make out five synths moving about the room with one of them wearing some sort of composite body armor. As much as he would like to just chuck a bunch of grenades into the room and obliterate all of the synths that would likely damage the tech that they had worked so hard to locate. So instead Nate carefully set his rifle to fully automatic fire and gingerly placed it on the desk pointed at the synths taking careful aim at the nearest one. A quick pull of the trigger and half a magazine of ammunition saw the permanent removal one of the synths from the equation. He repeated the process on another synth that decided to fire on him instead of seeking cover and emptied his clip into it until it too fell to the ground. One of the remaining synths had decided to charge him with a baton that crackled with electricity while he had removed those first two synths. Just as it reached his position and began to vault the desk Paladin Danse came barreling into the room and with a mighty leap completely cleared Nate and his improvised cover. Four hundred pounds of man, armor, and weaponry crashed into the baton wielding synth completely crushing it into the ground. Danse pulled his laser rifle and with a cry of "For the Brotherhood" began firing on the final 'normal' synth in the room.

This left Nate with the elite looking synth of the group which seemed more intelligent than the rest of the rabble they'd faced. It was smart enough to take cover and had a much higher accuracy than any of the others. The two combatants traded fire back and forth with neither having a clear advantage, Nate's armor took a few more glancing blows and the same could be said for the Synth. At least until the synth got a lucky shot off that hit Nate in his left hand, causing him to immediately drop his rifle and duck back into cover. With his left hand now useless and adrenaline the only thing keeping him from experiencing the agony that threatened to crawl its way up his nerve endings Nate drew his 10mm pistol with his right hand and popped back up out of his cover. Only to see Paladin Danse on top of the synth firing point blank into its head and chest until it finally refused to even twitch.

Turning his attention to his injured hand he saw that the damage was rather severe, three of the bones on the back of his hand were completely exposed and any attempts to move his fingers or wrist too much resulted in absolute agony. Using a dose of Med-X greatly reduced the pain he felt and a Stim-pack would help accelerate the healing, finally he wrapped his hand with some spare cloth that he then poured vodka onto it to prevent infection.

"Found it!" Danse called from across the room. "Apparently the Institute was after it as well, found it here in this elite synths bag. How's your hand?" He asked after seeing Nate soaking his wrapped hand in vodka.

"It will need a doctor to be fully useful again but I should be able to use a rifle properly by tomorrow, day after at the latest."

Danse nodded taking in the information. "We've only been in here a couple hours think we can make it to those super mutants you wanted to eliminate before nightfall?"

Nate merely laughed. "It's just some genetically modified superhuman monstrosities. How hard can it be?"


	4. Chapter 4: Great Green Jewel

Chapter 4: Great Green Jewel

Nate considered the super mutant camp just down the hill from his position. All things considered it didn't look too bad, he could just make out eight mutants patrolling around the rather small encampment with a sing brazier in the middle where the majority seemed to be congregated. Being downwind had made this scouting mission much less enjoyable as the stench of rotting and decayed flesh filled his nostrils from the numerous corpse bags strewn about the place.

Tactically speaking this location was rather decent, located on the main road into and out of west Boston it made for a fantastic ambush location. Yet at the same time it was far enough away from the road to provide a defensible fall back location should they require it. Odd, from what he had been told from Preston and Paladin Danse the Super Mutants were supposed to be mostly mindless brutes, relying on brute force rather than any tactical or technological advantage and yet here they were with a halfway decent location to terrorize the surrounding areas.

From his brief analysis of the mutants he saw that three would be more of an issue than the others, they had drum-fed pipe rifles which would suggest fully automatic fire capabilities and several varying pieces of rusted metal armor. The other five lacked any armor sans a chainmail kilt, near as Nate could tell two were completely unarmed with the remaining three merely had improvised swords made out of old wood planks.

A quick check of his Pip-Boy clock showed that he only had a few more minutes before he had to rendezvous with Paladin Danse or the man charged the camp. As he did one last check of the camp through the scope on his pipe rifle, he caught something disturbing. One of the mutants that he'd mistaken as unarmed was carrying a mini-nuke strapped to his belt, checking the other 'unarmed' mutant proved that it too had a mini-nuke. Those could pose a serious problem, during the Resource Wars Nate had seen and even used mini-nukes to great effect. If those super mutants started throwing them around it could easily kill himself or Paladin Danse despite his Power Armor. Just as he was about to leave and warn Danse he saw one of the mini-nuke tips blink with a red warning light.

"No god damn way." Nate's whisper was barely audible over the gentle breeze. These super mutants must be insane, they were walking around with primed mini-nuke ordinance meaning that they could be set off by just about anything. Including a sudden kinetic impact from a copper reinforced lead projectile, or a rifle round. Checking the clock again he saw that he had just three minutes left, time to find out exactly how accurate his new scope was. With two minutes left he readied his rifle and adjusted the sight for the range to the super mutants, taking his time to make sure he could quickly swap between the two mini-nukes. Ideally, he would take out both groups within a few seconds of each other, or failing that leave them incapacitated enough that they could be disposed of easily.

Sixty seconds remained, Nate was ready to fire and lined up his first shot. His rifle barked, breaking the silence of the early afternoon only for the silence to be broken a second later by the sound of an exploding mini-nuke. The explosion tore through the center of the mutant camp completely obliterating the brazier and five of the super mutants, replacing them with a superheated ball of radioactive energy. Nate didn't notice any of this, before his first round had even made contact he was already lining up his next shot as the first mini-nuke exploded his second round left the chamber. For the second time in the same number of seconds the sound of a mini-nuke exploding turning the remaining super mutants into ash.

When the smoke cleared nothing remained of the campsite or the super mutants, a shame really Nate would have loved to get his hands on one of the rifles that they had been using not to mention all the ammo that they'd carried. The sound of someone in power armor crashing through the brush and trees broke Nate from his musings as he readied to face this ne threat charging his direction. Once he saw the familiar face of Paladin Danse he lowered the rifle and relaxed his muscles.

"What happened? I thought you were just scouting the camp, why is everything blown up?" Paladin Danse asked.

"While I was scouting, I noticed a tactical advantage that I was quick to exploit. For all the warnings you and Preston gave I thought killing these guys would be a bit more difficult."

Danse just looked at him like he'd sprouted another mouth, suggested the sky was green, or that brahmin only had one head. "Let me see if I've got this straight. You took down a camp of Super Mutants with just a pipe rifle and whatever ammo you have in your pockets?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Nate replied allowing himself a small grin. "I only used two bullets; all of my ammunition would have been complete overkill."

For the briefest of moments, the only sound was the breeze buffeting a few leaves across the grounds and the crackling of radioactive fires from the nearby _former_ super mutant camp. Then Danse's deep booming laughter echoed across the wasteland. "From the results I'd say that's an accurate assessment. Let's head back to Oberland Station and give those civilians the good news."

Nate couldn't argue with that; it would be nice to get a break from this combat. The two soldiers had been fighting or running across the Commonwealth for the entire day and despite their prior experience that proved to be quite taxing.

Nate was preparing to leave Oberland Station for the second time in just one day, they'd taken a short break upon their arrival which had done wonders for their exhaustion. The settlers had been extremely grateful to Nate for taking care of their mutant problem pledging their support to the Minutemen once he'd explained just who had sent him to help. Strangely they also agreed to help Paladin Danse if he or his squad needed a place to lay low for a while, however they stopped short of extending that offer to the entirety of the Brotherhood of Steel. In their own words 'we just don't know enough about them'. Apparently while most people in the Commonwealth had heard about the Brotherhood they didn't know much if anything about the organization itself.

While he wasn't thrilled to be going backwards, away from Diamond City, away from help finding his son he'd given his word that he'd get Paladin Danse back to his squad before nightfall. As they finally prepared to leave Paladin Danse asked for Nate to hold up before they moved out. "While I appreciate your willingness to escort me back to Cambridge I don't think that will be necessary. You've already done more than enough for the Brotherhood of Steel and I couldn't ask for more."

Nate was more than a little surprised by this, while it would save him almost an entire day of travel, he had still made a deal with the Paladin. "Are you sure? I know you have your power armor and all but it's still quite dangerous to travel alone out there."

"Indeed it is, that's why I'm giving you this." He handed Nate an honest to god Laser Rifle, with a Brotherhood of Steel emblem engraved on the side. With the exception of the emblem it was exactly the same as the one he'd been issued all those years ago when the Chinese had invaded Alaska. "Since you didn't wind up needing my help with those super mutants after all this seems like fair compensation for your assistance at Arcjet."

"Thank you Danse, I'll be sure to put it to goo use." Nate told the man open and honestly.

"Just keep up the good work killing super mutants and I'll be happy. There is one other matter I wanted to present to you as well." After a pause he continued "How would you like to join the Brotherhood of Steel?"

Nate was initially shocked by the offer from what he could tell from his brief interactions with the rest of Danse's squad the Brotherhood of Steel was a rather tight knit group. They took the 'Brotherhood' part of their name seriously it was definitely an all or nothing group and they probably wouldn't take kindly to him running off after his son. "That's a generous offer but I don't think I can right now. You see my son was kidnapped…"  
"Say no more" Paladin Danse interrupted. "Family comes first be it your son or my Brotherhood, family should always be first. That said this is an open-ended offer so once your son is safe, I'd ask you to reconsider. Regardless of your decision I do owe you a personal debt for saving my team so if you ever need our help don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you Danse." Nate offered his hand to the Paladin and this time the man carefully shook it with his power armor hand. "I honestly hope I never get into the situation where I need a walking tank but it's nice to have the option." He added jokingly.

That brought a grin to the Paladin's face. "Ad Victorium. I hope to see you again, Nate. Stay safe."

With that the two men went their separate ways, it wasn't long before the thundering footsteps of Paladin Danse were lost to the distance as Nate made his way towards downtown Boston. His good mood from not having to hike all the way to Cambridge and back lasted all of an hour, once he began to walk among the ruins of Boston. It felt as though all the happiness was just sucked from his body as he walked among the decaying remains of the once great American city. Everywhere he looked was decayed, destroyed, or looted beyond recognition, anything that had survived the initial blasts had not survived the centuries since with anything not nailed down looted for one reason or another. The things that had been nailed down were left to decay and fall apart with seemingly no attempts at preservation or restoration.

Nate was pulled from his rather brooding observations about Boston's destruction by what was quickly becoming a common noise, gunfire. It wasn't far from his current location so he carefully crept his way forward, making sure to stick to the shadows or ruins as much as possible to avoid detection. After about a block he came across the source of all the commotion, it was his old friend the super mutants. This group seemed to be lacking the armed nuclear devices that he'd found so easy to exploit earlier, instead they were much more organized. They stuck to the cover provided by a few destroyed buildings and whether by accident or intent overlapped their reloading such that they never had a complete stop in outgoing lead. Currently their attention seemed to be focused on a group on the opposite side of the street, this group had the support of a few turrets suggesting a fortified position. Looking through his scope he could just make out a few humans wearing some sort of catcher's gear as protection they also had some sort of insignia on their armor suggesting an organized group.

As Nate prepared to engage the three super mutants directly in front of him another mutant charged out of the building to their left, causing him to take another look at the battlefield. Sure enough he could just make out a few gun barrels and muzzle flashes coming from inside on of the dilapidated buildings across from the catcher gang. Nate readied two of his grenades, the first he lobbed thru the second story window while the second he merely ensured rolled at the feet of the three directly in front of him seeking cover behind a rusted-out car. The first detonated collapsing the already decrepit building's front wall, exposing all of the super mutants inside to a hail of gunfire. The second explosion must have hit the car's fuel supply as it created a much larger explosion than Nate had expected, nothing was left of the super mutants that had used it as cover. With the remainder of the super mutants flanked and without cover they quickly fell to the combined fire from Nate and the as yet unnamed catcher gang that he'd decided to assist.

Once it became clear that the super mutants posed no threat Nate began his approach towards the gang that was on the other side of the intersection. Before he'd even made it halfway, he heard a noise, it was subtle but just barely he could make out the sound of an armored foot scraping across pavement coming from behind him. He reacted on instinct alone, spinning around a knocking whatever was trying to sneak up on him to the ground with the butt of his rifle. As he took aim and prepared to fire though he realized it was one of the catchers that'd he been helping kill the super mutants, with his hands up in surrender. "Woah, easy there. I ain't no mutant see."

Nate quickly relaxed and offered the man a hand up "Sorry about that but I've been fighting constantly for the past few days."

The catcher seemed to accept that like it was normal "I just wanted to make sure you weren't a raider in disguise or somethin, guess you ain't since you didn't shoot me there. Thanks for that by the way, tomorrows payday."

Nate allowed himself a grin at that "So what are you guys exactly? Mercenaries or something?"  
"What? No, we're not mercenaries, we're the guards for Diamond City."

Briefly Nate wondered why the guards for a city would be running around in the what could only be described as a baseball catchers full padded outfit, but he realized that he just didn't give a damn. "Sorry about nearly shooting you."

"Ahh don't sweat it. I'm used to having guns pointed at me, at least you had the courtesy not to pull the trigger. Anyway, the gate to Diamond City is that way." He gestured towards the end of the street at the next intersection. The fortifications were much more impressive there than at this smaller outpost, it bristled with turrets on every level and several guards could be seen patrolling it and the surrounding rooftops. The guard beside Nate waved a quick signal towards them and the few guards that Nate could make out visibly relaxed and returned to their patrols while the turrets seemed to stop tracking him. "They'll let you into the city without any complaints. Consider it my thanks for helping us with those super mutants back there. Most folks around here just hide behind these walls, it's nice to have someone who can fight hanging around."  
Nate thanked the guard and made his way inside the fortifications. While not ideal, Nate highly doubted they'd hold up under a siege, they would definitely dissuade any raider gangs or super mutants from just wandering in. He noted more than a couple of gaps and poor sight lines that he could take advantage of should the need arise. In the middle of the compound was a long-ago oxidized bronze statue of a baseball player, while Nate couldn't recall the exact name of the player he remember him being extremely good at the game. As he began to have a detailed look around the compound his attention was drawn towards a rather irate woman yelling into an intercom.  
"What do you mean you can't open the gate?!"


	5. Final Chapter (written as one-shot)

An Old Holotape

Nate sighed as he entered his office at the Castle, for the leader of the largest faction in the Commonwealth it was surprisingly sparse. Immediately across from the entry was a simple wooden desk adorned with just a pen and notebook. Hung on the wall behind it was a fully restored Minuteman flag the exact same flag that had flown at the Castle's battlements when they'd secured it from the mirelurk queen those many months ago. A more apt metaphor for the Minuteman's history could not be found if one tried.

However, Nate only had eyes for the only other piece of furniture in the room. A single metal cot placed the left of the door adorned with a simple yet clean set up sheets and pillow. After being awake for the past 80 some odd hours he was sorely tempted to just collapse into bed and rest. Painfully Nate tore his eyes away from the bed and instead made his way over the desk and sat down opening the top most drawer as he did. The inside of the drawer was almost as sparse as the room containing only an M1911A1 pistol, a box of .45 caliber rounds, and a lone holotape with "To: Nate" written in his now deceased wife's delicate script.

Placing the gun and holotape on the desk Nate began to contemplate the items. With Shawn now dead and the Institute destroyed these were the only reminders of his previous life; an antique service pistol passed from father to son since the Second World War and a holotape made by his late wife sometime before the bombs dropped. Despite Codsworth giving it to him just over a year ago he had never once listened to its contents. When he'd first received it his grief and anger at what had happened prevented him from wanting to hear it so it had been added to his kit bag where it remained for a long time.

That was until they secured the Castle and he had fully secured his position as General. While consolidating his supplies he found the holotape at the very bottom of his kit bag. Despite all the exposure to rain, radiation, and gunfire it seemed to be completely intact and he promptly inserted it into his Pip-Boy 3000. His hand had hovered over the play button for what had felt like hours but couldn't have been but five minutes as the guilt started to gnaw at him. Guilt at having let her die, guilt at having still not found their son, guilt at not listening to the tape sooner until he finally just ejected the tape and threw it in the desk drawer.

There the tape had remained, gathering dust and soaking up background radiation until today when he finally pulled it out again. Now though after facing Yao Guai, Deathclaws, Coursers, and a horde of ghouls Nate was afraid. It was strange he would fight all the horrors that the Commonwealth could throw at him with naught but a pistol and his birthday suit yet he was afraid of a dead woman's recorded voice.

Deciding that whatever was contained on the holotape couldn't possibly be make him feel any worse than he did right now he scooped it up, inserted it into his Pip-Boy and hit play wincing as a bit of feedback came over the speaker.

"Oopsie. Ha ha ha. No, no, no. Little fingers away. There we go. Just say it. Right there. Right there. Go ahead. *baby giggles* Ha ha! Yay! Hi honey! Listen..."

Nate felt tears forming in his eyes as the pain of missing both of them was almost too much to bear.

"I don't think Shaun and I need to tell you how great of a father you are... but we're going to anyway. You are kind, and loving, (Shaun laughs)... and funny! Ha ha. That's right. And patient. So patient. Patience of a saint, my mom used to say."

He closed his eyes and immediately her beautiful face filled his memory. Unlike in the past this time she appeared grainy and unfocused as though on a poor television screen.

"Look, with Shaun, and us all being at home together... It's been an amazing year. But even so, I know our best days are yet to come. There will be changes, sure. Things we'll need to adjust to. You'll rejoin the civilian workforce, I'll shake the dust off my law degree...  
But everything we do, no matter how hard... we do it for our family.  
Now say goodbye, Shaun... Bye bye? Say bye bye? *baby giggles*  
Bye honey! We love you!"

Nate wept openly for perhaps the first time in his adult life; he wept for his wife who had her life brutally ended by Kellogg's bullet, he wept for his son who had been turned into a brainwashed lab rat by the Institute, he wept for their normal lives that had been forcefully taken from them when the bombs dropped on that fateful day.

Eventually though his sobs softened and his eyes fell on the still open drawer of his desk. Before he even realized what he was doing the old family service pistol was in his hand, the familiar weight and comforting. It had been well cared for with the exception of the two hundred years Nate had spent in cryostasis and smelled of cleaning chemicals with just a hint of nitrate from when he'd last used it. Nate realized that it would be surprisingly easy, just a few pounds of pressure on the trigger and he would be with his family again.

A knock on his door broke him from these dark thoughts "Heya Blue, you still awake?"

Nate gave an affirmative grunt and Piper walked into his office. Her trademark lopsided grin seemed to brighten the room briefly until it turned into a frown upon seeing his face and the items on his desk. "Not exactly the great day for you that it is for everyone else, huh?"

He sighed as he could never keep anything hidden from her, although his mood was probably a bit obvious at the moment.

"Just a bit. I wake up after two hundred years to find my son kidnapped, lived his entire life without me brainwashed by the Institute, and I have the lovely job to tearing down his life's work to save a bunch of people I don't even know. Topping things off I found this holotape that my wife had made before this all kicked off and well, I guess it just hit me all at once." He trailed off.

Her eyes met his and he saw them full of concern as she carefully considered her next words "I-Is that why you needed your old service pistol with the safety off?"

Checking the gun still in his hands he saw that indeed the safety was off, which was odd considering that he didn't recall turning it off. He highly doubted that he would have been careless enough to store it in the drawer with the safety off which means at some point since he'd taken it out the safety had been turned off. Carefully he thumbed the safety to "SAFE" and placed the gun on his desk pointed away from himself and Piper.

Once the gun was safely placed on his desk Piper pulled one of the chairs around to his side of the desk, sat down next to him and placed her arm across his shoulders holding him tight. "Blue I'm gonna finally be honest with you. Remember when we first met in Diamond City? When I called you Blue for the first time?"

Nate thought back he recalled bluffing his way into the city, mostly with Piper's help and giving an interview in her office. "I think it was during that interview you said it was because of my blue vault suit and later when I became the General because of the blue coat."

Piper gave a nod "I must admit I lied to you a little bit back then. True you did always wear blue outfits but that's not the only reason, it was mostly because of how sad you looked. No matter what you were doing you had this slight cloud of sadness in your eyes. When you played with Dogmeat, helped a settlement, even during our little date you had this slight bit of sadness that never seemed to go fully away."  
She picked up the pistol from the desk admiring the care that had gone into keeping this ancient weapon in working order. "I'd understand you know. I wouldn't be happy about your choice but I'd understand. There was a time, after my father died and I exposed his killer, where I probably would have made the same choice had it not been for Nat." she placed the gun back in his hand and gave him the biggest hug she possibly could.

She moved to leave and as she opened the office door she said "You still have a family. All of us; Dogmeat, Garvey, Cait, Currie, Strong, Danse, Deacon, Nat, and myself are all your family now. It may not be the family you wanted or even expected when you woke up that day the bombs fell but I think I speak for all of us when I say we're glad to be a part of it."  
Just as she was shutting the door she added "I never did get that second date you promised either."

The door finally closed and Nate was left in the semi-darkness with naught but a pistol, an old holotape, and his memories of a life that should have been but now never would.

A/N: Had this rattling around in my head for a while now. There are prob a thousand like it but whatever, R/R if you liked it or didn't.


End file.
